Job – JP

Job is presented as a good and prosperous family man who is beset by Satan with God’s permission with horrendous disasters that take away all that he holds dear, including his offspring, his health, and his property. He struggles to understand his situation and begins a search for the answers to his difficulties.

Job is described as a blessed man who lives righteously in the Land of Uz. The Lord’s praise of Job prompts Satan to suggest that Job served God simply because God protected him. God removes Job’s protection, and gives permission to the angel to take his wealth, his children, and his physical health (but not his life).

Despite his difficult circumstances, he does not curse God, but rather curses the day of his birth. And although he anguishes over his plight, he stops short of accusing God of injustice. Job’s miserable earthly condition is simply God’s will.

In the following, Job debates three friends concerning Job’s condition. They argue whether it was justified, and they debate solutions to his problems. Job ultimately condemns all their counsel, beliefs, and critiques of him as false.

God then appears to Job and his friends out of a whirlwind, not answering Job’s central questions. Job, by staying silent before God, stresses the point that he understands that his affliction is God’s will even though he despairs at not knowing why.

Job appears faithful without direct knowledge of God and without demands for special attention from God, even for a cause that all others would declare to be just. Job is blessed to have seven sons, and three daughters which were said to be the most beautiful women in the land.